The present invention relates to an artificial tree, such as an artificial coniferous or Christmas tree, which is easy to assemble and disassemble, and when disassembled occupies a small amount of space which facilitates storage.
Artificial trees, such as artificial evergreens or Christmas trees, have been known for many years and have been formed in various manners. In particular, such artificial trees are known to be formed from a number of natural and synthetic materials to provide individual branches, which may be removably mounted to a central pole resembling a tree trunk. These known trees are thus disassembled by removing the branches or collapsed by folding the branches. However, such known trees are often difficult to assemble and disassemble, or assembly and disassembly is time consuming, and/or the disassembled condition of the tree occupies a large amount of space making storage difficult and costly.
Artificial trees have also been designed, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,168, that incorporate three spaced-apart spiral strips having connecting strips at spaced-apart intervals to interconnect the spiral strips and form a unitary structure. However, such known artificial trees often require additional support structure, such as a central pole or trunk, to assemble and display the tree. Additionally, although the assembled structures give a tree-like impression, the uniform dimensions of the spirals and placement of connectors does not create a “natural” appearance of a tree.
In nature, growth occurs in geometric proportionate ways, or patterns. There has been a substantial amount of research directed toward the natural phenomenon associated with growth patterns. The natural growth patterns have been associated or interconnected with mathematical expressions or constants, such as the Fibonacci Sequence (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13 . . . ) and the Golden Mean (1.618 . . . ), which in turn is related mathematically to geometries such as pentagrams and the Golden Rectangle (W =1, L =1.618 . . . ) or Golden Triangle. These relationships of natural growth are ultimately expressed in the spiral shape. This relationship of the spiral to natural growth is easily seen in the shape of the nautilus shell, the arrangement of sunflower seeds in the sunflower, in the bracts of pinecones and curls of ferns, among other various natural phenomena. In natural growth, there is no simpler law than this, namely that it shall widen and lengthen in the same unvarying proportions. The shell, like the creature within it, grows in size but does not change its shape; and the existence of this constant relativity of growth, or constant similarity of form is the essence of the spiral. A spiral is a curve on a plane that winds around a fixed center point at a continuously increasing or decreasing distance from the point.
Botanists have shown that plants grow from a single tiny group of cells right at the tip of any growing plant, called the meristem. There is a separate meristem at the end of each branch or twig where new cells are formed. Once formed, they grow in size, but new cells are only formed at such growing points. Cells earlier down the stem expand and so the growing point rises. Thus the lower (older) branches of a plant, such as a tree, are larger than the higher (newer) branches.
The prior art expandable trees do not follow the principle of geometric growth and therefore, their lower branches (portion of the spiraling strips nearer the lower end), which are of equal width to the higher branches (portion of the spiraling strip nearer the central axis) do not assume a “natural” tree-like appearance.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an artificial tree, which may symbolically represent a coniferous or Christmas tree and which is quickly and easily assembled to assume a “natural” appearance of natural growth.